November 17, 2021
By Dadson A. Musa
Richard Allen Secondary School is located in the east end of Freetown very close to the highway that links the city to the rest of the country. It has been in existence for decades and belongs to the AMA Methodist Mission. It is an appendage of a parent mission in the United States of America. The school operates a two-shift system but due to the quest for quality it has transitioned to a single shift. Speaking to the principal of SSS, Mambie Kabba he revealed that the role of the school had dropped due to the approval of so many other secondary schools in the east of town.
He said they have therefore decided ‘to maintain quality.’ Mr. Kabba has spent one year in office but seems to be confronting the challenges he met in the school. Among the challenges are poor toilet facilities, not having hold on teachers with pin code due to salaries running at the bank and poor remuneration for teachers who have not been approved yet by government. Teachers without pin codes are taking home Le.300, 000 per month each. Fifteen teachers benefit from this every month. And this comes from the subsidy that government gives to the school every term.
A man in his mid-age, Kabba brags that quality is being maintained now in the school unlike before. The entry level for pupils into SSS1 is 5 credit including English or Math. Mr. Kabba also admits that controlling the pupil –teacher ratio is a head ache for them as more pupils want to attend the school. So in some classes they have over 70 pupils which make class control challenging. He sounds optimistic about the future of Richard Allen as the communities in the east end of town count on it a lot for quality secondary education.
Previously government subsidy had not been forthcoming on time and even when it came at all it did not match the number of pupils enrolled in the school. The school according to Mr. Kabba is strategic center for the West African Examination Council (WAEC). This to him is because ‘standards are maintained in the school.’ The habit of aiding and abetting exam malpractice is not tolerated in the school which is why so many pupils go to schools where the practice is common place. On maintaining discipline among staff members he has resolved to be writing query letters and copying the Teaching Service Commission. Although corporal punishment has been discouraged by ministry his administration has resolved to other punitive measures to maintain discipline among pupils in the school.